'Long good bye' may have been a mistake, admits Blair

Tony Blair has admitted for the first time that his "long goodbye" from Downing Street may have been a mistake.

The Prime Minister said his decision to announce that he would step down later this year had damaged the Labour Party by creating a period of "uncertainty".

Mr Blair suggested he had been forced into it - seen in Westminster as a thinly-veiled rebuke to allies of Gordon Brown.

Many Labour MPs believe Mr Blair's announcement in 2004 that he would not fight a fourth election effectively turned him into a lame-duck leader and triggered party infighting.

The Prime Minister has previously insisted he had wanted to bring stability to the speculation about his future.

But last September, a Labour uprising forced him to confirm publicly that that month's party conference would be his last as leader and Prime Minister.

Looking back to those events, Mr Blair said: "It wasn't really my desire last year to have a situation where all this uncertainty was created.

"There is always a debate about whether I was sensible to say I wouldn't fight a fourth election - though personally I think I'd have had a load of different problems if I hadn't.

"It hasn't been easy, but I'm pretty sure it wouldn't have been easier if I hadn't said it. Mrs Thatcher kept saying she was going on and on because people kept asking her, and in the end she got absolutely belted and chucked out."

In an interview with the Observer, Mr Blair also suggested that his departure would neutralise the issue of the Iraq War - allowing Labour to win back voters who opposed military action.

Referring back to the 2005 election, he said: "Iraq was a factor then. In a sense, when I go, that goes with me."

Mr Blair dismissed suggestions that his successor - widely expected to be Mr Brown - would have to call a snap election to earn his own mandate as PM.

He said he expected it to be "a significant time" before the poll was called.

Mr Blair declined to endorse the Chancellor as his successor, referring instead to the "myriad of complimentary things I have said in the past".

He claimed that the process of choosing a new leader while in Government would be "a test of maturity" for the Labour Party.

Mr Blair refused to rule out a Conservative victory at the next election, but said David Cameron's "touchy-feely" style was not enough to win him power.

"I could once have just stood up and been a touchy-feely politician people kind of liked and who looked a bit different from the normal," said Mr Blair. "That wouldn't have got me home."

One of Mr Brown's allies said yesterday that Mr Blair's departure offered an opportunity for "real renewal" - and hinted it should come soon after Scottish, Welsh and local elections on May 3.

Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain, who is bidding to be Mr Brown's deputy, said there was "no point speculating" about whether Labour would be in a stronger position if Mr Blair had not preannounced his departure.

"We can now move forward with confidence to fight the elections on May 3. Then, at a time of his choosing with the National Executive, the Prime Minister has said he will step down along with John Prescott... there will then be triggered a succession election and a deputy leadership election," Mr Hain told Sky News.

"There will then be about seven weeks for the party members to vote and it will be an exciting opportunity for real renewal in the party."